India vs Australia: Murali Vijay slams ton ahead of first Test as tour match against CA XI ends in draw

Agencies
December 1, 2018

Sydney, Dec 1: Murali Vijay struck a confident hundred while KL Rahul scored a half-century in the warm-up game against Cricket Australia XI, easing off any worries in the Indian dressing room in their final outing before the first Test.

Vijay, returning to the Test squad after being dropped mid-way through the England tour, celebrated his comeback with an unbeaten century off 118 balls. He looked solid throughout the innings on the fourth day, and had reached his half-century off 91 balls.

Thereafter he sped through the second fifty-runs, off only 27 balls, getting to three figures off 118 deliveries. He hit 26 runs off Jake Carder (0-41) in one over to race to his hundred.

Earlier, Rahul scored 62 (98 balls) as the duo put on 109 runs for the opening wicket as India finished at 211-2 (43.4 overs) in their second innings at stumps on day four of the tour game against Cricket Australia XI here at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Rahul batted with greater confidence than in recent times, hitting eight fours and a six, as he warmed up for the first Test. At times, he did look shaky with circumspect timing, as seen in his dismissal off a full toss caught at mid-wicket.

Hanuma Vihari (15 not out) came out at number three and finished unbeaten at stumps.

This was after Cricket Australia XI finished at 544 runs (151.1 overs) in their first innings and kept India in the field for as long as possible. India had scored 358 in their first innings.

Mohammed Shami (3-97) did not bowl on this final day, while R Ashwin (2-122 in 40 overs) and Ishant Sharma (1-73 in 22 overs) sent down a majority of overs in the morning session.

India though tested their fifth bowling options again as Vihari (0-34), Virat Kohli (1-27) and Murali Vijay (0-17) sent down 13 overs between them.

Harry Nielsen (100) scored a hundred off 170 balls, including nine fours, and was out caught at mid-off as he hit a skier off Kohli.

The hosts' lower order all got good runs with Daniel Fallins (43), Luke Robins (38 not out) and Jackson Coleman (36) keeping the visitors chasing leather in the sun. The latter duo added 57 runs for the final wicket.

So much so that India brought on Jasprit Bumrah (1-0) and Kuldeep Yadav (0-3), not initially included in the 14-man list at the start of the game, to bowl after lunch.

Bumrah looked in good rhythm as he bowled Coleman with a well-aimed yorker off his seventh delivery.

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News Network
March 12,2020

Miami, Mar 12: The NBA has suspended its season "until further notice" after a Utah Jazz player tested positive Wednesday for the coronavirus, a move that came only hours after the majority of the league's owners were leaning toward playing games without fans in arenas.

Now there will be no games at all, at least for the time being. A person with knowledge of the situation said the Jazz player who tested positive was center Rudy Gobert. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because neither the league nor the team confirmed the test.

"The NBA is suspending game play following the conclusion of tonight's schedule of games until further notice,'' the league said in a statement sent shortly after 9:30 p.m. EDT. "The NBA will use this hiatus to determine next steps for moving forward in regard to the coronavirus pandemic.''

The test result, the NBA said, was reported shortly before the scheduled tip-off time for the Utah at Oklahoma City game on Wednesday night was called off. Players were on the floor for warmups and tip-off was moments away when they were told to return to their locker rooms. About 30 minutes later, fans were told the game was postponed ``due to unforeseen circumstances."

Shutdown for two weeks?

Those circumstances were the league's worst-case scenario for now -- a player testing positive. A second person who spoke to AP on condition of anonymity said the league expects the shutdown to last a minimum of two weeks, but cautioned that time-frame is very fluid.

"It's a very serious time right now," Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "I think the league moved appropriately and prudently and we'll all just have to monitor the situation and see where it goes from here."

The Jazz released a statement saying a player -- they did not identify Gobert -- tested negative earlier Wednesday for flu, strep throat and an upper respiratory infection. That player's symptoms diminished as the day went along, but the decision was made to test for COVID-19 anyway. That test came back with a preliminary positive result.

"The individual is currently in the care of health officials in Oklahoma City," the Jazz said, adding that updates would come as appropriate.

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Agencies
April 14,2020

Tokyo, Apr 14: Tokyo organizers said Tuesday they have no B Plan in the event the Olympics need to be postponed again because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Masa Takaya, the spokesman for the Tokyo Olympics, said organizers are proceeding under the assumption the Olympics will open on July 23, 2021. The Paralympics follow on Aug. 24.

Those dates were set last month by the International Olympic Committee and Japanese officials after the coronavirus pandemic made it clear the Olympics could not be held as scheduled this summer.

We are working toward the new goal, Takaya said, speaking in English on a teleconference call with journalists.

We don't have a B Plan. The severity of the pandemic and the death toll has raised questions if it will even be feasible to hold the Olympics in just over 15 months. Several Japanese journalists raised the question on the call.

All I can tell you today is that the new games' dates for both the Olympic and Paralympic Games have been just set up, Takaya said.

In that respect, Tokyo 2020 and all concerned parties now are doing their very best effort to deliver the games next year." IOC President Thomas Bach was asked about the possibility of a postponement in an interview published in the German newspaper Die Welt on Sunday.

He did not answer the question directly, but said later that Japanese organizers and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe indicated they could not manage a postponement beyond next summer at the lastest.

The Olympics draw 11,000 athletes and 4,400 Paralympic athletes and large support staffs from 206 national Olympic committees.

There are also questions about frozen travel, rebooking hotels, cramming fans into stadiums and arenas, securing venues, and the massive costs of rescheduling, which is estimated in Japan at 2 billion- 6 billion.

Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto addressed the issue in a news conference on Friday. He is likely to be asked about it again on Thursday when local organizers and the IOC hold a teleconferene with media in Japan.

The other major question is the cost of the delay; how much will it be, and who pays? Bach said in the Sunday interview that the IOC would incur several hundred million dollars in added costs. Under the so-called Host City Agreement, Japan is liable for the vast majority of the expenses.

This is impossible to say for now, Takaya, the spokesman said.

It is not very easy to estimate the exact amount of the games' additional costs, which have been impacted by the postponement."

Tokyo says it's spending 12.6 billion to organize the Olympics. But a Japanese government audit published last year says the costs are twice that much. Of the total spending, 5.6 billion in private money. The rest is from Japanese governments.

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Agencies
February 7,2020

New Delhi, Feb 7: It was on February 7, 1999, that Anil Kumble became just the second bowler in the history of cricket to take all ten wickets in an innings of a Test match.

He achieved the feat against Pakistan at Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium, now known as Arun Jaitley cricket stadium in Delhi during the second Test of the two-match series.

India had set Pakistan a target of 420 runs in the match and the visitors got off to a steady start as openers Shahid Afridi and Saeed Anwar put on 101 runs for the first wicket.

It was then Kumble who came into the attack and wreaked havoc on the Pakistani batting line-up.

The spinner, also known as 'Jumbo' first dismissed Afridi (41) in the 25th over. After the right-handed batter's dismissal, India kept on taking wickets through Kumble and Pakistan was reduced to 128/6 in no time.

Kumble then kept on taking wickets at regular intervals and he got his tenth scalp in the 61st over after dismissing Wasim Akram.

This effort enabled India to register a win by 212 runs, and Kumble became the second bowler after England's Jim Laker to take all ten wickets in a single Test inning.

Kumble finished with the bowling figures of 10-74 from 26.3 overs.

Kumble announced his retirement from international cricket in 2008 and finished with 619 wickets in the longest format of the game.

He has the third-highest number of wickets in Tests, only behind Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan (800) and Australia's Shane Warne (708).

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